Structural properties of visual images constructed from poorly or well-structured verbal descriptions

Abstract

Previous research has found a linear relation between distance and scanning times for spatial configurations when the spatial configurations were learned perceptually and when they were constructed from well-structured verbal descriptions. The current research replicated the time-distance relation when the images were constructed from repetitions of well-structured descriptions but not when the images were generated from three repetitions of a description that presented information in a random order. Six exposures to the randomly ordered information yielded the expected time-distance relation in image scanning. We posited that additional exposure to the poorly structured information allowed the image to develop the structural coherence and resolution needed to support consistent scanning. Thus, the structure of descriptions can affect the intrinsic structure of images of described objects and hence the mental operations performed subsequently on these images. Another experiment indicated that image coherence and resolution improves even after the verbal description is accurately recalled.People are able to form visual images of unseen objects that are described verbally. This ability should not be surprising because in everyday exchanges between speakers, substantial knowledge is built up from verbal inputs that people translate or recode in a visual form, hence producing cognitive substitutes for the physical entities described. The implementation of these processes has been investigated when subjects learn spatial descriptions and then perform cognitive tasks that rely on recall of the learned configuration. Typically, the subjects' task is to infer object relations not explicitly stated in the de-

Structural properties of spatial representations in blind people: Scanning images constructed from haptic exploration or from locomotion in a 3-D audio virtual environment

“…Essentially, the procedure was similar to the one used in image-scanning experiments with perceptual learning (e.g., Kosslyn et al, 1978) or verbal learning (e.g., Denis & Cocude, 1992). A distinct feature of the present experiment was that the participants in the sighted groups were blindfolded throughout the entire experiment.…”

“…The image-scanning paradigm offers a particularly useful way of finding out whether the scanning effect (i.e., the linear increase in scanning time with increasing distance) will also be detected after verbal descriptions of spatial configurations are processed in the absence of any prior visual contact with the corresponding visual layout. Several previous studies have reported evidence that spatial mental images constructed from verbal descriptions can indeed preserve metric information and, thus, achieve structural coherence that makes them similar to perception-based spatial images (e.g., Denis & Cocude, 1992;Denis, Gonçalves, & Memmi, 1995).…”

Three Turtles in Danger: Spontaneous Construction of Causally Relevant Spatial Situation Models.

“…It may be easier to construct spatial representations from a written sentence if the sentence can be read repeatedly, thereby making a stepwise construction of spatial representations possible. It is known that repeated encoding of spatial descriptions fosters the construction of spatial representations from text (e.g., Baguley & Payne, 2000;Denis & Cocude, 1992;Perrig & Kintsch, 1985). Of course, this advantage of visual presentation will only be effective if comprehenders have time and decide to reread.…”

“…Furthermore, the structure of spatial descriptions affects the construction. In studies of spatial mental models, descriptions were easier to transform into mental models when they were determinate (Baguley & Payne, 2000;Mani & Johnson-Laird, 1982), continuous (Denis & Cocude, 1992;Ehrlich & Johnson-Laird, 1982;Oakhill & Johnson-Laird, 1984), and condensed (Zwaan & van Oostendorp, 1994).…”

Properties of cognitive maps constructed from texts

“…Order of information is an important text characteristic that can affect the mental models that are constructed from the text (Denis & Cocude, 1992;Denis & Denhiere, 1990;Foos, 1980;Taylor & Tversky, 1992b). For example, if the anchors are mentioned at the beginning of a text, they might be more likely to serve as anchors in the cognitive maps that readers construct from these texts.…”